Residents of Owerri, the Imo State capital, have decried the delays in evacuation of refuse dumps within the city after every sanitation exercise.
They complained that the development is turning major roads into dumping sites.
Some of the residents, who confide in our correspondent, said that it has become a normal occurrence every last Saturday of the month after environmental sanitation exercise as refuse are dumped indiscriminately along major roads within the capital city.
A food vendor, Mrs Caroline Ojinduka, told our correspondent that the dumped refuse stays weeks, sometimes months, before it will be evacuated by the waste management authority.
“The odour coming out from the refuse site scares away people who come to patronize us, causing lots of losses in our sales.
“This is negatively affecting our business, the odour is not environmental friendly at all as it is not good for health,” Ojinduka said.
In a similar vein, a fruit vendor at Ekeonuwa market, Chinelo Nduka, said the presence of the refuse sites within the market premises is an eyesore. According to her, it is not a site to behold.
Our correspondent further gathered that residents living around the vicinity complained that there is no reason for refuse to be left unattended to for a long period of time after every sanitation exercise before it would be evacuated.
Speaking also, a public health expert, Dr. Vitalis Iheka, said that the issue is constituting a health hazard to members of the public.
He called on the relevant bodies in charge of evacuating refuse to rise to their responsibilities and ensure swift disposal of unwanted substances from public places in order to avoid public health challenges.
Going round the area, our correspondent discovered that major roads within the city have been turned to dump sites.
Owerri residents decry delay in evacuation of refuse after sanitation exercises